(5-20) Withdraw From Melee Change (Part 1: Consistent Mechanic)

[Stalker0]

this is part 1 of a two part proposal. Ultimately either can be implemented independently but they can be thought of as the same concept.

Part 2 can be found here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...ee-damage-reduction-for-certain-units.684425/

Proposal: Change the "Withdraw from Melee" mechanic to the following.

• The %chance is now 100% on the first melee attack against the turn that round. It is now 0% on all subsequent melee attacks.
• The %chance is no longer affected by speed.
• The unit will always move in the following manner. (note the picture below)
  • If Tile 1 (the tile right across from it) is open, retreat to Tile 1.
  • If Tile 2 (the hex counterclockwise from 1) is open, retreat to Tile 2.
  • If Tile 3 (the hex clockwise from 3) is open, retreat to Tile 3.
  • If Tiles 1,2,3 are all occupied or unavailable, the withdraw chance lowers to 0%.

Rationale: One of the major problems with this mechanic is its randomness. In a game that has very little randomness in combat, ESPECIALLY when it comes to positioning and movement, the randomness of this mechanic creates too many unacceptable scenarios. Sometimes the unit withdraws when you rather it hold, holds when you rather it withdraws. also its wirthdraw location can be a bit arbitrary at times.

Lastly the impact of speed is poorly understood and not documented in the tooltips, so its good to remove that as well.

This version creates a definitive withdraw, effectively immunity to damage from the first melee hit (assuming you have room to move). but to prevent abuse and silly scenarios where a unit can literally move across the map due to withdraws, all further withdraws are removed. Its once per turn period.

 

[Tekamthi]

I really like this one EXCEPT for the 1, 2, 3 logic. Its too arbitrary, when applied to various maps and different situations, it will still feel RNG even though its not. I'd prefer that we evaluate plots 1, 2, 3 via Map.PlotDistance(plotx, ploty, capitalx, capitaly) and thus prioritize plot with smallest distance to capital -- if two are even distance from cap then we can fallback to the numerical priority.

also consider evaluating plots for adjacency to enemies -- say 1 and 2 are both adjacent to enemy unit, you'd want a withdraw to prioritize plot 3, no? I know you expressed desire to keep this mechanism super simple, but imo the 1,2,3 arbitrary directions is too simple.

 

[axatin]

How is it currently determined in which direction a unit withdraws?

 

[azum4roll]

How is it currently determined in which direction a unit withdraws?

Prioritize opposite tile, then randomly pick left/right. I think it's better than the proposed order.

 

[axatin]

Suggestion how to determine withdraw direction:

1. If the tile behind the unit is free, the unit always withdraws to it. (It would be strange if a unit that's attacked frontally retreated diagonally.)
2. If that tile is blocked, the unit retreats to one of the two tiles next to it. The tile with the fewer amount of adjacent enemy units is preferred. (Withdrawing means trying to escape enemy units as well as possible.)
3. If both tiles have the same amount of adjacent enemy units, a random decision is made. (A fixed order like in the OP could be exploitable for human players.)

 

[axatin]

I sponsor this.

 

[Recursive]

Timestamp post to arrange all the threads in a neat order.